VULGATE
VULGATE
873
tlie field dedieated is not a portion of the owner's liereUitar^' possessiona, then the money payment given in commutation ia fixed by the time tliat has to ehipae before tlie J'ear of jubilee, and in that
fear it returns naturally to the hereditary owner. n tliis case the redemption penalty of an addi- tional fifth is not required (aee, further, Sab- batical Ykar).
According to Nu lo"- ' (a late section of P), when an animal sacrilioe was ollered in fulfilment of a vow, a mealotrering had to be presented with it. Another late law (Lv 7"' ") prescribed that a peace-ofl'ering in discharge of a vow nmst be eaten on the day on which it was ollered, and what was left on the second day. If any portion still re- mained to the third day, it had to be burnt. This law probably embodies the immemorial practice : a vow would, as a rule, involve a sacrilicial meal, and the regulation that the flesh must not be eaten after the second day may even have been a relaxing of earlier usage. In Pr 7'* the woman who entices the simpleton to his ruin, has that day punctiliously performed her religious duties^ she has paid her vows and come out to find a com- panion for the sacrificial feast.
The warning in Dt 23-''"''^, that, while there is no sin in not vowing, when a vow has once been made it must be 8cru|iulously fullilled, finds an echo in the \Vi.sdom literature. In I'r 2U^ we apparently have a protest against hasty vows followed by repentance and attempts at evasion (the te.\t and precise sense are alike uncertain ; see Frankenberg and Toy, ad loc). So also I^olieleth advLses his readers to make haste with the payment of their vows, and not trifle with God by delay, for He takes no pleasure ii. fools. Far better is it to refrain from vows than to make and fail to fulfil them. They must not bo betrayed into a vow, which they will afterwards <?.\plain away to the priest's messenger as a misiake, lest God be angered « ith them and destroy ti:e work of their hand (Ec 5'-«, cf. Mai 1"). But while on the one side the ancient sanctity of the vow was relaxed, the more spiritual, as we see from some of the Psalms, came to throw all the stress on the element of thanksgiving, and the material element sank into insignificance, as with other sacrifices (Pa 22-^ 50'^).
Yet vows played a great part in later Judaism, and Jesus came into conflict with the religionists of His time on this question, singling out the law of Corbrtn especially as an example of the nullifying of the Law by tradition (see Cohba.n). St. Paul became a Jew to the Jews in this matter (Ac 18'", if this refers to him and not to Aquila, and 21'^"-"). On these cases, and also on the whole question of the Nazirite vow, nothing need he added to what has been said in the article Nazihite.
Ln-RRATT'RB.— Nowock, lleb. ArMiol. ii. 168, 189, 268-206: W. R Smith, /tS2, J31-48.5; WellhauBen, Iteite Arab. UeidA 190, 195. For Rabbinical dccisiont) the treatise Nedarim, and Eden^hcim, Jau4 the Meisiah., iL 17-21.
A. S. Peake. VULGATE.— i. Life of JuDinic. and the circumstanc^a under which his
translation was made. Ii. lliBtory of tlie V'ul^'ale after Jerome's death, lii. Nature and mettiod of Jerome's revision ; textual criticism
of tlie Validate. It. History of the name.
T. Main difTerenc«-s between the Latin and the English Bible. t1. Manuscripts of the Vulgate. LitetBtut*.
i. Life of Jkkomi:, and Circumstances undi;r WHICH Hi.s Translation wa.s made.— Jerome, or to give him his full name, Eusehius Ilieronymus, was horn at Stridon, on tlie borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia, probably about A. I). 340-342.* His parents were Christian, and sullieieiitly wealthy
* See the discussion on the question lo Zockler, //itfronymtu, tin Leben u. Wirkm, p\>. 21-'24.
to give him a good education and to send him early to Uome, to study under the celebrated grammarian Donatus. From the first, Latin literature attracted him, aiul he especially studied Vergil, Terence, and Cicero ; he also worked at rhetoric under Caius Marius Victorinus,* laid the foundation of a good knowledge of Greek, and collected a considerable library. Thence he moved to Gaul, where, stayin" at Trier, he began serious theological study, whic-li he prosecuted further, on settling in Acjuileia in 370. Four years later he travelled with several friends in the East, and at Antioch was attacked by a fever, during which a dream made a deep impression on him, and re- sulted in his abandoning all secular studies. He dreamt that he was summoned to the judgment- seat of Christ ; on beiu" asked who he was he replied ' a Christian,' nut received the stem answer, ' Meiitiris, Ciceronianus es non Chris- tianus ; ubi enim thesaurus tuus, ibi et cor tuum' (Ep. xxii. ad Enstui-kium, 30). Yet this classical training and fondness for the best Latin literary models proved one of the greatest possible advant- ages to Jerome for the work of his life, and tlirough him to the whole Christian Church ; he had been preparing himself unconsciously for making that translation of the Bible which was to be the Editii) Vulgata, the authorized version for the whole of Western Christendom during more than a thousand years.